Woman smashes up her 1.5 million baht car over feud with Ford Thailand

A woman who smashed up her Ford Everest with a crowbar in Korat, northeast Thailand, on Thursday says she wants “justice, not attention.”

The 42 year old businesswoman, Runghathai (surname withheld), resorted to clambering on her bonnet and smashing her windscreen because of an ongoing feud between her and Ford Thailand which began in March.

Runghathai says that she drove the new car less than 1,000 kilometres and encountered “loads of problems.”

When the car started playing up, Runghathai took it to the service centre. However, she said they didn’t fix any of the problems, so she decided to go to the Consumer Protection Board’s Nakhon Ratchasima Office for help.

Meanwhile, Ford Thailand has blamed Ranghathai for the car’s problems. Ford said that the woman installed an air purifier, which is an accessory which they said could “affect the tire pressure monitoring system.”

Ranghathai explained that she was previously in a bad car crash so she wanted to buy a car with an excellent safety system. Ranghathai was set on the Ford Everest after reading several good reviews.

The woman bought the car upfront for a price of 1.48 million baht on February 2 this year. In 30 days, Ranghathai had driven 938 kilometres in the car, when things started to go wrong.

On March 4, Ranghathai took the Everest, still under warranty, to the Ford service centre. However, the mechanic said the problem could not be solved without removing the air purification system that Ranghathai installed.

The service centre arranged an appointment for a “thorough repair” from 11am – 6.45pm on March 9. However, Ranghathai said she couldn’t go without a car.

The next day, Ranghathai went to the Korat Consumer Protection Board and requested if she could either have a new car of the same model or a refund. The board arranged to host a meeting with Ford to sort out the problem, but said she would have to wait until July 25.

However, no solution was found on July 25, so another appointment was arranged for September 22. In September, Ford told Ranghathai that she couldn’t have a new car, but her current car could be repaired.

To her shock and dismay, Ranghathai said the legal advisor accused her of snatching the key from the mechanic while he was fixing the car when he hadn’t finished tightening a bolt, so the problems were her fault.

That’s when Ranghathai resorted to smashing up the car. She hopes the act will publicise her story and will convince Ford Thailand to replace her car…

“I tried negotiating with them several times, but the service centre did not cooperate with me. When they made the accusation against me, it hurt my ears. People don’t understand how I feel. I’m gangster enough to destroy it myself and fix it myself. I don’t want fame, I just want justice.”

Netizens are confused because the real facts of the feud are not very clear. Some netizens think there is something fishy going on and some even accused her of being an attention-seeker.

SOURCE: KhaoSod